


Axis

by theladyofthelost



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Dragon Age II Spoilers, Dragon Age: Inquisition Spoilers, F/M, I Don't Even Know, Language Barrier, M/M, Modern Girl in Thedas, Non-Canon Relationship, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Dragon Age: Inquisition - Trespasser DLC, Romance, Science Fiction, Slow Burn, Slow To Update, not a self-insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:15:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25949467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theladyofthelost/pseuds/theladyofthelost
Summary: When a green crack appears over Boston, people start to panic. Some say aliens have finally come or that it's the end of the world, but either way, chaos is king.Recruited by the research company, Thedas Inc., Eleni "Elle" Anderson is brought on as the right-hand woman to the project lead-- a doctor she has a complicated relationship with, to say the least. Plagued with nightmares of another world for her whole life and an unlucky streak a mile-wide, Elle is surprised to find that the crack is not only the key to her nightmares but a portal to another world.After a workplace accident, she's thrown into the world of Thedas, a place of magic and conflict, and pushed into the quest to save it. Adventure, romance, and mystery ensue, but while getting back is possible, the question of whether or not she'll want to grows as she learns to love not only this strange new world but also the people in it.
Relationships: Cullen Rutherford/Original Female Character(s), Fen'Harel | Solas/Original Character(s), Fen'Harel | Solas/Original Female Character(s), Male Inquisitor/Dorian Pavus, Solas & Original Female Character(s), Solas/OC
Comments: 7
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter One

Elle was elbow deep in a cow’s birth canal when one of Red Hill’s teenaged farmhands burst in to tell her the news.

“Doc! Jimmy told me to come get you— there’s a crack in the sky in Boston!”

If Elle didn’t have a hand in places best left undescribed, she would’ve stopped what she was doing, swore a bit, and then sprinted the half-mile to the main house to see for herself, no doubt assuming that the boy had lost his mind. A crack? It couldn’t be. Half-exhausted from an already long day and yet another night of nightmares, like every night, Elle just wanted to rest and wait. But as it was, now well into hour eight of labor, nature waited for no man— and never Elle. The cow gave a distressed moo, her insides seizing with the effort, and together with the help of another farmhand, Elle pulled the birthed calf free. The messenger still darkened the farm door as the calf and the after birth spilled onto the hay-strewn floor, splattering Elle’s boots and sweat-soaked cotton shirt.

“Doc, did you hear me? A crack—“

“Yes, Tim, I heard you. Thank you.” She fought the urge to put a hand to her face, sticky with fluids as it was, and grimaced as she caught a glance at Tim’s reddening cheeks and ears. She always tried not to snap at the teenaged workers, but her thanks hadn't come across as sincere as she usually meant it. Having an arm inside a cow off and on for most of a day will do that to you. The weariness settled on her bones far too old and deep for her age.

“Jimmy also said you have a call.”

Lips twitching with the effort not to scowl, Elle nodded, head giving a single jerk. Of course she did. A few beats of silence hung in the air, and the teenager took the chance to rush out of the dusty barn, fear of Elle’s ire winning out over the usual awe and curiosity. The farmhand behind Elle chuckled.

“For all they gape at you, you sure do put the fear of God in ‘em.” Elle glanced at the much older farmhand, Matt, her scowl now firmly in place on her thin lips.

“I’m nice to them.”

“Oh, I know. But it’s awfully scary to have someone like you talking to someone like them.” Someone like her? Elle shook her head. She never did know what that meant. It could’ve been any of many things that made her “someone like her” instead of part of the rest of the farmworkers at Red Hill. Elle went over to the barn's sink, scrubbing her hands viciously and then wiped her hands and arms on a nearby towel, turning back to the newborn calf to get back to work, but Matt cut her off. “Nah, Doc. Your call.” He made a motion towards the barn door, the universal sign for “now get.”

Elle sighed through her nose and plastered a smile onto her face. “Thanks, Matt.” Grabbing her discarded over-shirt, she wished she had more time to change out of her work clothes, but no such luck. Hosing off her rubber boots with the green garden hose that wrapped around the outside of the stereotypically red barn, she stripped off the stained t-shirt that had been over her now sweaty white tanktop and threw on the flannel long-sleeve, shivering despite the heat of the summer day and her thick jeans. She left the barn yard with her head held high, although her stomach flipped and churned. A crack in the sky? And worse, a call at the same time? This was her lucky day.

An avid watcher of the stars since she was a child, among other things, Elle wracked her head for any unusual events that could’ve been taking place over New England, but she came up empty. There was nothing out of the ordinary today. Not even a full moon or a new moon, for that matter.

Nothing at all.

Walking along the dusty road to the farmhouse, Elle passed towering cornfields ripe and bending with the effort, but no one was in sight. She frowned, blinking her eyes, their edges grimy and watering. Well, maybe the empty fields were out of the ordinary.

As she approached the sagging front-steps of the main house, a white colonial number in vogue over a century ago, she could hear the crackling of the television through the open windows. The July air fluttered lace curtains as she trudged up the stairs and through the creaking door, and she stopped short at the crowd filling the hallway and living room to the brim. In the corner, a television showed news coverage and Elle’s eyes widened.

On the flickering screen, an emerald green crack seemed to split the sky of Boston in two, cleaving it with ease. It flashed and glowed, reflecting off of camera lens and the helicopters that swirled around it. A set of news anchors discussed the crack as the footage rolled and Elle’s heartbeat sped up with each circle of the crack. The green haze remained even as she blinked, dancing on the back of her eyelids, familiar and haunting but real for once. Sweat began to form at her hairline.

“…over Boston for a little over two hours now, with no sign of leaving. Some sources are speculating that this is a new test done by the South Russian government in the ever-accelerating arms race. President Barkes will be speaking soon on the matter and members of her cabinet have remained silent on the topic.”

“Eleni, you have a call.”

Elle wrenched her gaze from the screen, although the green still lingered on the edges of her vision, refusing to be ignored. Her father, Jim Anderson, stood at the top of the stairs, his face pale next to his customary red and white checked shirt. The crowd of workers clustered into the house turned to Elle as her father’s voice cut across the coverage, and Elle saw her older brother and sister exchange a weighted look over the threadbare sofa before their eyes drifted to her.

Trying to remain calm despite the icy fear creeping up her spine, Elle nodded, taking the stairs two at a time and brushing past her father without a second glance to the onlookers. She was almost past him when he grabbed for her shoulder, his work-toughened hand calloused even through her sleeve.

“It’s that Harvin man.”

“I know, Dad.”

“Eleni,” he paused. A man of few words, her father struggled to find the right ones now. His blonde and grey streaked eyebrows drew together and his jaw clenched. “Don’t agree to anything you’ll regret.”

“I won’t.” She hoped she was telling him the truth, but the drop in her stomach hinted at the contrary.

Eleni pushed past him and into her room which held the one computer in the farmhouse. New in 2054 when she started college, the computer was now an ancient beast of a thing, taking up a small area of her desk, in comparison to the cutting edge technology available now ten years later. But not even the computer was as out of place as her caller. In holographic form and total contrast to her childhood bedroom with its floral wallpaper and worn carpet, Dr. Charles Harvin sat in a chair Elle couldn’t see, legs crossed, ankle over knee.

Even in a hologram, he looked the same as ever. Her scowl returned.

“Charles.”

“Elle, sweetheart, it’s been a while.” His voice was a smooth timber, a sound that even now made her swallow a lump in her throat against her will, but she didn’t respond. He pushed a set of black-ridged glasses up his sharp nose, dark eyes peering out through the lenses. “I think you have an old model, you appear to have frozen.”

“I haven’t said anything.”

“Ah, my mistake.” She again remained silent and he quirked a brow at her. “You’re going to make this difficult, aren’t you? What? Do you want me to beg?”

She couldn’t hold back a scoff this time. “Sounds unlike you.”

“Yes, it does. So don’t make me.” He smiled at her, his lips crooked in a way she would’ve once found attractive but now was, well, horrible. The nerves in her stomach turned to simmering anger and her hands clenched at her sides.

“Harvin, if you have something to say, say it. Otherwise, I’m going back to my job.”

“Fine, fine.” He threw up his hands, running them through wavy and perfectly styled brown hair. “I need you to come to Boston. You know more about fabricational rifts and universal limits than anyone and you’d be perfect for the team.” She stared at him blankly. “Oh come on Ellie girl, show some excitement! This is the opportunity of the century!” His voice rose, his vigor clear. Elle couldn’t help but agree, but she highly doubted they agreed on what that opportunity was exactly. “You’ll even be working with the best in the field, right-hand woman to the man in charge.”

“Who? Dr. O’Connors?” Elle referenced their mutual advisor from grad school, unable to help herself. Despite the situation, she felt her stress start to unfurl. She wouldn’t mind seeing the aging professor once again; they’d parted on awkward terms, to say the least, and the scar around her eye felt tight at the memory. But Harvin’s grin turned catlike, the lines from his rarely genuine smile creasing.

“No, me.”

“No.”

“Elle, this is for science. The pursuit of knowledge. Just like we always talked and dreamed about. Don’t throw it away just because I’ll be there. I’ll barely be in your way, you won’t even see me.”

“Can you promise that?”

“Well, no. You’d be my assistant so you’d be seeing me almost constantly.”

“No.” She pulled out her faded computer chair, sitting in it with a huff. “Absolutely not.”

The pair of them remained silent, both sizing the other up. Charles Harvin was entirely unchanged, Elle was now positive, may it be in manner, looks, or ambitions. Taking in his pristine suit jacket with buttons shiny and impressive even through the stuttering blue of the hologram, Elle felt a rush of weariness wash over. All she wanted to do was sleep, but she suspected the conversation wasn’t even close to being over. As Elle inspected him, Charles watched Elle in much the same way, but Elle knew better than to trust his false smiles. He never sized anyone up as anything other than prey or his next challenge.

“I was sorry to hear about your grandmother, I know the two of you were close,” he said, his formal posture softening and his voice warm, even as Elle stiffened. “She was a wonderful woman.”

“Thank you, yes, she was.” A tick of silence followed.

“You know, she would’ve wanted you to come back to the field. Especially now.” Elle ran a hand over her face, slumping forwards and fighting the urge to kick a hologram she’d just stumble through. “The discovery of the millennia has fallen in your lap and here you are covered in dust and farm gunk, slumming it with the locals. This could give you back everything. Your research, your reputation. Harvard may even turn a blind eye— ah forgive the turn of phrase— and you could get an excellent reference from them to continue your work elsewhere.”

“Charles, if you knew me at all, you’d know I don’t care about any of that. I’m happy where I am.”

“Really? Eleni Anderson giving into the life of a farm girl, I never thought I’d see the day.” Elle glared at him.

“You already did.” He paused, appearing unsure and Elle felt a wisp of triumph go through her. He clearly had expected this to be easier than it was.

“You’re right, that’s fair. I’m sorry, it was low of me.” He tapped his long fingers on his crossed legs. “I’m not wrong about your grandmother though, and I know that deep down below that thick layer of dust and the proverbial cotton in your ears, you miss it. Eleni, you love the stars. Can’t you see that this is a sign? For you to come and take back everything you lost?”

She closed her eyes, letting his words slip in and steep, despite her better judgment. She hated him for it, but he was right. This is what her grandmother, the formidable, Cora, and her most cherished person in the whole world, would’ve wanted. Even on her deathbed, months before, she’d sternly told Elle to give it another shot. Her grandmother’s words whispered in her mind, speaking of stars’ gifts and wonders beyond hers and Elle’s shared dark dreams.

“And if it’s not what you think, you can always leave. You can always come back here if you wanted,” Charles added, and Elle met his eyes as she, at last, looked up at him, her green eyes locking onto his brown ones.

“What would I be doing?” Charles didn’t have the decency to contain his smugness.

“Well, first we have to get you off this farm. And also into something presentable. What were you doing you anyway? You look terrible.”

Elle gripped the bridge of her nose as he rambled on, not requiring an answer from her. She sure hoped she wouldn’t regret this. And that she could sleep on the ride.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A NOTE ON THE WORLD BUILDING
> 
> So in order to clear up any confusion before it really starts, this story takes place in the year 2064. In our world, the main locations are a small farm in Maine and the city of Boston. However, it’s a futuristic version of both places inspired by recent events and the like.
> 
> That said; I wouldn’t call it dystopian or utopian or anything of the sort. Just a future version. Here is some basic world-building knowledge that I’ve decided to implement.
> 
> 1\. The New England area of the United States (Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Connecticut) have been merged to create one large state entity now called the state of “New England” (I know, sooo original). 
> 
> 2\. The capitol of this new state is Boston due to location and historical importance. 
> 
> 3\. The states that came together to form New England are now known as provinces.
> 
> 4\. To travel between provinces and states, the US Government of 2064 requires medical testing to ensure that disease doesn’t spread as easily. Testing, needless to say, has become quicker and more efficient than it is now, but still causes border delays.
> 
> 5\. Politics are still a bit fraught, but I’ve yet to decide how much of the politics of 2064 USA is going to be brought into Thedas once Elle gets there.
> 
> 6\. Many, but not all, large cities have become walled. To come and go between walled cities and the outside, a myriad of papers are required, much like at the province, state, and national borders. 
> 
> 7\. These walled cities are home to the wealthy and often the best of everything, but they’re not all that they seem.
> 
> And a few other disclaimers:
> 
> You do not need a working knowledge of US geography and politics to read this story. If any of those things are brought up, I’ve tried to make them make sense when put in context. For example, calling Maine the “northern province of New England” or Boston the “capitol of the state of New England” and etc. That is definitely enough knowledge to get by as geography isn’t a huge deal here.
> 
> I will be treating Thedas like it’s a new world that no one has encountered yet. This is because A) To Elle it is a new world and B) It will give me more freedom over how the world building of the games and DA franchise interacts with the lore I’ve implemented.
> 
> If at any point these changes become confusing, please let me know and I’ll do my best to clear up any confusion through edits or the next chapter.

Like most half-dreams, the distant Boston skyscrapers pierced skies swirled in fog, disappearing into heights too high to see.  Too early for the sun to be up, the sickly cast of the crack stretched across the clouds, giving the capital of the State of New England a new light to wake up to  .  The emerald hue covered everything, reflecting off of windows and parked cars, earning Boston a new name in the news. Elle heard it echoed in her father's living room before she left Red Hill right around midnight. _The Emerald City._

Elle found her eyes drawn to it as she waited in line outside the city limits, ensconced in a sleek black car with tinted windows and hard leather seats.  The driver Harvin hired was quiet in the front, his gloved hands motionless on the steering wheel, but Elle knew his eyes had to  be drawn  to the crack too. It demanded attention, infecting thoughts and news and for Elle, memories too.  Despite her attempts to sleep on the over six-hour journey from the province of Maine to Boston, the promise of the crack pulled at her, itching at a memory she couldn’t quite place.

It rang familiar, the gem-like structure contracting and expanding every so often and reminding her of a faint pulse. Her curiosity and fear melded together into one entity; two sides of the same coin.  On the one hand, she’d spent most of her undergraduate, graduate, and pre-doctoral career studying exactly these kinds of phenomena. 

Before the accident in her last year of doctoral work, she’d  been poised  to become one of the foremost cosmologists in the country.  Together with Harvin, she’d promised to test some of science’s longest questions on the forming of the universe, dark energy and matter, and other such things.  The craziest of science fiction theories couldn’t touch some of the discoveries they found or the math they engineered. The realization of the theories brought to life, the crack pulled on long-dead dreams.  Her inner scientist with her yearning for knowledge reared her head and tapped her feet, wanting freedom.

But  on the other hand, a deep uneasiness settled in her bones, coursing through her every time the green shimmered or winked at her from around street corners, the afterglow lingering in the haze of her left eye.

It was too much like her nightmares.  As the car crept forward, Elle swore she could see reddened eyes following them in the windows, the dark limbs of shadow creatures scuttling from doorway to alley and from bush to parking lot of the slums outside the city.  She blinked and they disappeared, replaced with the funhouse mirror of brake-lights and street lamps seen through the car windows. With each turn of their journey and despite the scientific promise of the crack, Elle wasn’t pleased with the prospect of  being trapped  in the city.

The people of Boston agreed with her.  While Elle and the driver waited in a short line to get past the city walls, the other line, the one to leave the capitol, went farther than she could see.  Jam-packed with cars, the outskirts of “The Emerald City” made it hard to tell if the fog settling on the border in the early morning hours was nature made from the water beyond the gates or the hurried breaths of terrified citizens and the older vehicles idling for too long.

She’d heard stories of the last time a mass exodus fled the cities.  For decades now, every child grew up on the stories, although the facts and the warnings grew distorted as legends took their place.  Forty-four years prior when the first of the pandemics shook the world, people left for the countryside.  While her family had been in the Maine farmland for centuries, their neighbors held roots in most of the once major cities of the country.  Regardless, Elle’s and her older sibling’s lifetimes saw the return of the population to urban areas, but they weren’t the places they once were.

Her father called them straw-man states, named for both the argument and the average crop watcher, and after living in Cambridge for much of her academic career, Elle  was inclined  to agree.

She never could put her finger on it, but the towering spires of Boston instilled a certain kind of tension in her.  Their high heights reached sometime around the 2050s spoke to the latest achievements of mankind, the biggest and most notable being the achievement of pretending everything was back under control.  If the fifties and sixties of the century before  were considered  a golden era for America, then the fifties and sixties of the 2000s brought the return of a gilded one.

Waiting to  be approved  to enter the Emerald City, Elle felt a sudden kinship to another distant farm girl on her way to an urban center of glowing green. She eyed the beaten-up and stained white sneakers she’d slipped on much earlier in a sleep-filled haze. She could go for a pair of those ruby red slippers right about now. Did that make Harvin the wizard of Oz?

She shook her head, closing her eyes for a moment. There’s no place like home, indeed. Although Harvin would argue Boston was more her home than the farm in the middle of nowhere. She disagreed. Neither were.

Finally reaching the gates, the car pulled up alongside two guards in slim-fitting body armor. They both held high-tech rifles with glowing blue handles, their helmets matching. She watched as her driver held out their ID cards, and the guards scanned the thin metal squares. One of them peered into the back windows, their eyes unseen behind their visors.

Rumor had it that the visors saw through everything, may it be metal, stone, or cloth. Elle wrapped her jean jacket around herself tighter, feeling exposed.

“You  were tested  before travel?” The robotic voice echoed through the car.

The driver nodded, handing over yet another metal card. Elle nodded on reflex, even though the guard from before had his back to her.

That’s why it had taken a while for them to get to Boston.  Before leaving Maine, they’d  been tested  at the province border to  be cleared  for travel, waiting in line for two hours. Despite no signs of any of the five deadly viruses, Elle’s tester voiced concern at her body’s clear signs of fatigue.  Though tempted to cite her long day— she had delivered a calf yesterday, after all— Elle knew the fatigue was a long-term chronic thing, which the doctor  quickly  noted. 

No surprise there.

A staple of her appearance for as long as she could remember, bruise-like circles surrounded Elle’s green eyes, a stark contrast despite her tanned skin. She’d long since accepted them as permanent.  A passed on quirk from her grandmother, like her dark hair, tanned skin, and green eyes, the disturbing dreams that caused them haunted her since birth.  Even the scar below and through her left, partially-blind, eye could  be attributed  to her lineage and the dreams somehow.

She pushed thoughts of her grandmother from her head, her throat tightening at the off-hand though, and the  remainder  of one of her many failures.

She missed her. But she missed the feeling of home that died with her more.

Giving back the metals cards to the driver, the guards waved their car through the gates, ushering them forwards.  The concrete walls lined with silver and armored watchmen slipped away, replaced by the inner-sanctum of the Bostonian streets, with route 1 leading to the  newly  refurbished Zakim Bridge.  Chrome and greenery from the pristine parks and skyscrapers lined the well-kept roads, betraying the Emerald City for what it had become, what all cities had become— a haven for the rich and privileged.  Like  all of  the walled cities, the protected areas home to the wealthy  were nestled  inside thick walls and layers upon layers of slums lining the outer barriers.

The cities were the place for the healthy and the wealthy, the influential and the damned, if her father was to  be believed, anyway.

With the crack tearing open the sky, bright despite being miles above them, Elle could see why.  It felt like something out of a science fiction flick, or from some of the more creative doomsday theories.  Civilization healed itself from the five plagues, but upon its return to greed and decay, the sky opened up to swallow the world whole— and fire and chaos reigned.

Elle couldn’t help the wry smile tugging at her lips, despite her grim thoughts.  It sounded like something out of Revelations, or from the mouth of her father’s father, a self-professed religious fanatic although also an affable old man who loved reruns of “The Golden Girls”. Her smile faded after a moment though, reminded of the very real implications of the crack.

It was quite the phenomenon, although that went without saying.

The rest of the drive passed by  quickly, Elle too busy mulling over the possible implications of the crack in her sleep-deprived mind to pay much mind to the world outside her.  After what felt like moments, the car pulled up to a tall,  instantly  recognizable building, the well-groomed greenery surrounding it and the shining metal giving away its wealth. Elle’s jaw clenched.

The driver left the car idling, coming around the front to open her door for her.  Behind him, Harvin strode out of the gleaming structure, a wide grin on his face under his characteristic dead eyes.

“Ellie, you made it!”

“You didn’t tell me it would be at Thedas,” Elle accused, refusing to take his hand out of the car and crossing her arms over her chest. Goosebumps formed on the backs of them as he brushed a hand over one of them anyway. She angled her body away. He brought himself up short, his frame towering over her much shorter five foot six.

“Of course it would be.” He motioned behind him. “They, Thedas Inc., that is, are heading the project. They have a government contract with the Fed and NASA.”

“And they let you hire me?” She couldn’t keep the incredulity out of her tone. She and Thedas Inc. had a long, messy history, both on a personal level and a professional.

“Well—” he paused, shuffling from foot to foot.

“You didn’t tell them.” Elle groaned, running a hand over her  slightly  damp hair.  The coarse waves resisted her attempt to run her fingers through them, no doubt frizzing as she struggled to keep her cool. “Charles, I don’t think I have to tell you how  monumentally  stupid you are.”

“Nope, I’m not.”

“No, you are.”

“I won’t argue the monumental, but the stupid? Darling,  really.” He grinned at her, a flirty smirk tugging at his lips. Elle felt sick. “Come on then. I want to introduce you to the team.”

He turned on his heel, taking the steps two at a time and forcing Elle to  hurriedly  grab her bag from the back of the car and rush after him. He waited for her at the revolving golden doors, stepping aside so she could go first.

She pushed through, her sharp intake filling her lungs with cold air as she saw the oh so familiar lobby. An intense feeling of deja-vu filled her. Memories of nerves and sweaty palms poked at Elle, urging her to remember her shunned past.

She didn’t have time to dwell on it though. Harvin linked her arm with his, pulling her along and past the security who waved them in.  Harvin hustled her towards the elevator, the gleaming floors and high marble arches disappearing in an instant as the doors of the elevator closed behind them.

Shrugging out of his grip, Elle moved to one side of the elevator, putting space between her and Harvin. He caught her eye as she turned back to face him, stiff and blank-faced. He raised a dark eyebrow.

“So it’s gonna be like this, huh?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Elle responded. He huffed a laugh, sidling up closer to her.

“You know, this will go better if you stop pretending you don’t know me.” Elle jerked away, glaring at him from hard eyes.

“I never did,” she said, keeping her voice even as her fists shook at her sides. Her fingernails dug into her calloused palms.

“Oh honey, you’re not still hung up on that, are you? It was a valuable experience, I’ll give you that, but you must’ve known what you were getting into.”

“Yes, well, I didn’t know dating you required owning a lie detector.” Harvin threw his head back, an echoing laugh filling the small space. 

“There’s the Ellie I know and love.” She bristled at his words, back going ramrod straight.  He made a calming gesture, his Rolex watch glinting in the light of the aluminum-walled elevator. “Relax, would you? You’re here now, and that’s what counts. I kept my promise, at least, so we both got what we wanted in the end, didn’t we?”

She stared at him, face again blank. The elevator doors sliding open to reveal the 128th floor, saving her from replying. He smirked at her and made his exit, with her following and fuming along. Encased in walls of white and thick glass, the labs of Thedas Inc. were a familiar place for her, but she’d never seen this one.  The largest available and hosting more state of the art devices than Elle would ever need, the lab was a hub of activity despite the fact it was half-past five in the morning. Harvin flashed a badge in front of a blinking scanner beside one of the doors and it opened, smooth and silent. 

As they entered, the occupants of the lab looked up from their work and Elle couldn’t help the wide smile when the wiry-haired old man to her right gasped and stopped tapping notes on the tablet in front of him immediately.

“Eleni Anderson, I can’t believe it!” He rushed towards her, shaking her hand first and then pulling her into a tight hug. “And I thought the giant crack in the sky would be surprising enough these days!

“Dr. O’Connors!” She returned the hug  happily, her ire before brought  back to a dull simmer. She smiled as she pulled away from her old advisor, mentor, and friend. “It’s been too long!”

“That it has,” he agreed, but he paused, blinking owlish and doubting from behind his glasses. He turned to Harvin, a hand still on Elle's shoulder. “And as much as I’m glad to see you, I have to wonder whether it’s wise.”

He aimed this statement at Harvin who shrugged. From anyone else, Elle would've taken it as an insult, but Dr. O'Connors was a special case. She knew he had her best interests at heart. Harvin grabbed a pen from a nearby counter, twirling it between his long fingers.

“They wanted the best of the best, and she's one of them. Doctorate or no. You’d have to be an idiot to not get her on this project.”

“Charlie…”

“Dr. O’Connors, why don’t you and Elle go catch up and you can tell her about what we’ve been working on? Elle, I’ll see you shortly.”

With that, he walked away, the doors of the lab closing behind him with a click. The other inhabitants of the lab eyed her but went back to their work.  None of them were familiar, and if the piles of cups of coffee were any hint, idle chit chat with the overworked scientists wasn't on the agenda. Yet.

O’Connors shook his head at Harvin's exit. Waving her over past his station, O'Connors brought her over to another set of doors leading out of the lab.

“Well, best do what he says. Now, tell me about what you’ve gotten up to these past two years.”

They left the lab and the doors led to an empty hallway lined  entirely  with windows. The lights were off, but unneeded as the dawn began to shine its way in.  Elle started to explain, telling him of her time on the farm and answering his questions, but her uneasiness from before grew as she glimpsed the crack in the large windows. Not even the presence of a friendly, long-missed face was enough to distract her. 

If she was a betting woman, she’d bet that’s what Harvin was banking on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading! What do you think of Thedas Inc? Elle's dreams? Let me know in the comments!


End file.
